Wednesday 16 September 2009

My Chinese Name

I know my surname is really common. But I've never brought myself to wiki it till now.
Who new it was also just as common in Vietnam? and 5th most common surname in China!

WIKI:

Chén (traditional Chinese: ; simplified Chinese: ; pinyin: Chén; Wade-Giles: Ch'en) is one of the most common Chinese family names. It ranks at the 5th most popular surname in Mainland China and the most popular surname in Singapore and Taiwan. Chen is also the most common family name in Guangdong, Zhejiang, Fujian (spelled Tan or Chin in Singapore and Malaysia), Hong Kong (spelt Chan in Hong Kong) and Macau. It is usually romanised as Chan in Cantonese, and sometimes as Chun. In Min (including dialects of Chaozhou (Teochow), Hainan, Fujian, and Taiwan), the name is pronounced Tan. In Hakka and Toisan, the name is spelled and pronounced as Chin. Some other Romanisations include Zen (from Wu), Ding and Chern

In Vietnam, this surname is written in Quoc Ngu as Trần, and is the second most popular Vietnamese surname, accounting for 11% of the population,[1] after the surname Nguyễn (38.4%).

Chen is also common transliteration of the Hebrew name, חן, often found in Israel. It is pronounced [xɛn], and means grace or favour.[citation ne

For those of you who don't know. I am not very proud of my chinese name as it is pretty old school for modern terms. However, I was named with Royce on my birth cert, unlike many chinese friends I know who simply added an english name to seem posh or something. lol

Anyway, my full chinese name is
陈忠锦

feels like my secret name or something. It's weird to acknowledge this dislocated part of my ancestry. Like a phantom limb, it's something you can't see but feel sometimes. It is part of your identity by virtue of being i your birth certificate and passport. But even those are written in the its phonic form, which I am not going to reveal here.

The middle part of my name means Loyalty. which to a certain degree, I believe to be very much so.

The last part however, has always baffled me. Not so much as to what it means exactly... but what was my grandmother thinking when she chose that character....

  1. brocade, tapestry
  2. embroidered
=
  1. exhibit, display
  2. plead
  3. (archaic) ancient
  4. A surname
My name means Ancient/Displayed Loyal Tapestry. WTH.
Nvm, I'll make it sound glam.

My grandmother believes that each person is like a thread. All our lives are interwoven and connected. Together we create this Ancient, neverending (loyal) tapestry of Life.
Hence my name.

Wow, aren't I good at bull shitting.

2 comments:

Shazz said...

OMG IT'S HARD NOT TO LAUGH! I respect you Royce, god knows how much i love you... you old tapestry...you~ <3 :)

Royce Tan said...

aww thanks shazz